For the letter "m," we made monkey milkshakes. You make the traditional chocolate milkshake, using vanilla ice cream, milk and chocolate sauce, then add ripe bananas. They are very yummy. We served ours with mini M&M cookies. We bought the mini M&M baking candies and followed the cookie directions on the back of the package.

Five Little Monkeys

5 little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Went to the doctor and the doctor said
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."

Me

Ten little fingers, ten little toes,
Two little eyes, one little nose.
Put them together, and what have you got?
You've got ME, and that's a lot.

Mice

I think mice
Are rather nice.

Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven't any
Chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
The house at night.
They nibble things
They shouldn't touch
And no one seems
To like them much.

But I think mice
Are nice.

~Rose Fyleman~

Mud

Mud is very nice to feel
All squishy-squash between the toes!
I'd rather wade in wiggly mud
Than smell a yellow rose.

Nobody else but the rosebush knows
How nice mud feels
Between the toes.

Make mice from stamped thumbprints. Let the chiklren put their fingers on stamp pad then place on a piece of white paper. Add tails and other features with fine markers.

Magic Pictures

Place a piece of waxed paper over a piece of white paper. Let the children draw with a pencil or stick on the waxed paper. Put a watercolor wash on the white paper and the drawing from the waxed paper will appear.

Have the children create a wall mural! Have fun!

Janna sent in this great suggestion:
To help students recognize the letter "M" and it's sound, write a large "M" on construction paper. Have the students glue marshmallows on their "M"'s.
Thanks, Janna!

"Jana mentioned gluing marshmallows on an Mm. I make a line of an M and m then students use a large marshmallow to stamp out
the letter with tempra paint. They turn out really good. Them I hang them alternating M and m for an colorful display."--Submitted by Connie--thanks!

One activity I do for letter Mm is to Read "The Mitten" By Jan Brett.
I make a large white posterboard mitten. Students recall each animal entering
the mitten. I write each answer on a sentence strip. We then glue the
sentence strips onto the mitten in the correct sequential order as the animals e
ntered the mitten. I also have a pair of mittens students being "good listeners"
take turns wearing as I read the story. I also cut out small mittens giving each
student a pair. Students write a capital M on one mitten and a lower case
m on the other and then decorate. I then connect the pair of mittens
with a piece of yarn and hang on our clothes line.

Marshmallow Painting

Let children dip big marshmallows
in different colored tempra paints and paint on paper. My class
thought this was really neat . Idea from Becky---Thanks!

Mud Painting

Mud Paintings - First, you can introduce the activity by reading the mud poem written on the website ("Mud" is in the poem section of this page). Then create mud by adding a
bit of water to some dirt. You can have the children write the letter Mms in the mud using their finger or they can illustrate
pictures of objects that start with the letter Mm (monkeys, moose, mice, etc.) They love getting dirty, but it makes learning
tactile and fun for all of those visual and kinesthetic learners!

Submitted by: Jenni--thanks!

Use M & M's for counting, sorting and patterning activities.

Measure, using yardsticks, rulers and metric sticks.

Introduce your unit on money.

Introduce More or less.

Use M & M's in an estimation jar.

Sherry sent it this great math center
to use with letter M. Thanks, Sherry!

Read If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff.
Program muffin liners with numbers. Provide a bowl of moose berries
(blue beads or pom poms) to count out.

Introduce a simple unit in maps to your students.

Use magnets, magnifying glasses and mirrors for exploratory activities.

For M week we had an M march. I brainstormed M words and made a list with each child's name
next to their idea. I sent the list home to parents and asked that they write the word on a
card (provided) and if possible, send the item in with their child. We had a great time marching
around the school showing off our M items. Everything from bags of M & Ms and marshmallows to
mirrors and magazines.

I hope you can use some of these "alphabite" ideas!! If you have any more that I can post here, PLEASE email me with the ideas and your name, using the email icon below or use this form. I will post your idea and give you credit!! Also just write and let me know how you like the ideas and how they can be improved!! Thanks!!